Broken Bones
by MusicWisdomCourage
Summary: After the giant war Percy and Annabeth are never truly healed. But when their first child comes along, things change. (One-shot)


I had fought titans, giants, and survived two wars before I was even legally allowed to drive. I walked through the darkest pits of hell, and held up the sky for days. I consider myself quite a resistant person when it comes to pain.

And yet childbirth was somehow on a whole new level. It finally makes sense why every culture in the world had so many goddesses for it. It hurts! You would think that someone would invent a better method to do this by now. " I am going up to Olympus someday when this has passed and propose a theory that invents a brand-new way to birth babies." I thought to myself. And not to forget, kill Percy too.

And then the horrendous pain went away. All the horror I went through in the last couple of hours disappeared when the nurse put my baby into my arms.

He was the most adorable child I had ever seen. And he was all mine. With ten toes and ten tiny little fingers and a red face crying like there was nothing else left for him to do. The broken part of me - the twisted and cracked part I never really managed to fix after the giant war, mended back together and everything fell into place. Never mind Percy, my new favorite human being is now laying in my arms all tiny and warm.

For the first time since the baby was placed into my arms, I realized that Percy had let go of my hand and took our son out of my arms. He kissed our child's forehead and the widest grin spread on his face.

"Aren't you the cutest little guy?" He looks down at me and hugs me. "I love you so much Annabeth." He whispers into my ear and places his son back into my arms.

"You better, because I am never doing this again." He laughs, not believing me. The nurse, Jennifer, comes back into the room.

"I'm sorry if this is a bad time, but there is a huge crowd outside asking to come in." Percy and I share a look, and Percy walks outside with her to talk to them. Minutes later, four anxious demigods, two exhausted parents, and two proud grandparents all stood around my bed and looked at our son.

"Henry Theseus Jackson," Percy tells them and Sally walks up to take Henry into her arms. She whimpers and a tear slips out. Piper, Frank and Paul walk up to Annabeth bearing presents. Paper was ripped and fell to the floor as I checked to see what was in them. We got a green onesie from Sally and Paul, an adorable pair of tiny baby converse from Piper and Jason, and a hand-knitted baby blanket from Hazel and Frank. I unfolded the blanket and asked Jason, who was now holding Henry, to wrap him in it.

Hazel came up to give me a hug and say goodbye. She and Frank have to drive back to New Rome and can't stay long.

"Thank you so much for the blanket!" I wave to Frank as he leads her out of the room. I am so excited for them, at my last chess session with Frank he told me he was finally going to propose.

As Piper is handed the baby she cries and blames her hormones (She is 2 months pregnant). Jason puts his hand around her back and pulls her close.

When the **y** hand Henry back to Percy he asks them if they would want to become Henry's godparents. Percy and I talked about this a few weeks ago and decided we would want them to have Henry if anything happened to us.

"Yes, yes, yes, oh my gosh, yes!" Piper jumps for joy and runs to give me a hug.

Half an hour after Piper and Jason leave with Percy's parents, Leo walks in. Percy sat down a while ago and is now fast asleep. Leo pulls out a miniature Pegasus, fully functioning and flight ready. He turns tells me about all the little buttons on it and how child-friendly it was. I cry, knowing how much effort he must have put into this, and wake up Percy, who takes Leo outside. It is still awkward with them ever since the whole Ogygia thing.

The next morning I am free to go and Percy and I pack up our final bags and start the journey home. At least 5 apollo kids are in the lobby saying goodbye. I can tell because they come bearing gifts. Apparently it has caught wind that our child was born.

After a much too long drive home - due to Percy's way too slow driving - we enter our brand new apartment to find 12 gifts sitting on our living room table. Including a fully-functioning mini sun chariot.

I sit down on the couch for a well deserved rest and cuddle up with Henry. It hits me at that moment what I hadn't realized yet. I had been pushing it down for the last couple of days and ignored it completely. I had been so afraid. I knew of all the things that could have gone wrong. I knew that Demigods don't live very long. I knew that Demigods don't marry and especially don't have kids. I squeeze my eyes closed, tears slipping out onto my already ruined hair and onto my couch. I lean against Percy, who holds me tight.

I know that this isn't the hormones, it is just a pair of over-damaged kids who have fought for so long that they have forgotten what it is like to be whole. We forgot what it is like to have a true family.

But we will learn just like everyone else. Through diapers, midnight feedings, temper tantrums, all the firsts and all the seconds. We will learn and we will heal those broken bones.


End file.
